Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Weekend Summary

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to [email protected] with "Membership" in the subject line.)

Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to [email protected]. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.

Al-Hurr jihadi media has released a video about Mohammad Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri militant who was convicted by the Supreme Court of India for his role in the terror attack on the Parliament of India in New Delhi in 2001. He was hanged on February 9, 2013.

The Ghuraba' Falastin Company (The Foreigners Company of Palestine) published a video on February 6, 2018, showing Abu Muhammad Al-Falastini, the company's field commander, speaking words of encouragement to his troops.

The following report profiles an individual whose posts suggest that he left the UK and joined the Islamic State (ISIS) late in the summer of 2017, despite the harsh situation on the ground with battles raging against the few pockets of ISIS forces in Syria.

On February 2, 2018, Islamic State (ISIS) supporters shared an open letter on French-speaking Telegram channels written by "women of ISIS" (most likely wives of ISIS fighters) pleading to be allowed to join the fight like men and expressing their desire to die as martyrs in jihad.

On February 1, 2018, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) issued condolences for the death of Sheikh Abu Rawaha Al-Qusantini, the head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's (AQIM) media outlet, the Al-Andalus Foundation.

On February 6, 2018, Al-Wafa, the pro-Islamic State (ISIS) media group, published an article eulogizing German rapper-turned-ISIS fighter Deso Dogg, aka Abu Talha Al-Almani, who was killed in January 2018.

On February 6, 2018, the pro-Islamic State (ISIS) media outlet Al-Abd Al-Faqir, published the fourth episode in its series of short fictional videos entitled "We See It (Quite) Near, They See the (Day) indeed as a Far-Off."

On February 7, 2018, Al-Hayat, one of the leading media arms of the Islamic State (ISIS), released a video showing at least one woman fighting alongside men, and documents several "martyrdom" operations by its "Avenging the Chaste Women" campaign of coordinated attacks against PKK forces.

The following information is based on a general overview of a social media account demonstrating terror-related activity/sympathies.

Platform: Facebook

Additional Information: According to details on his Facebook account it appears that this individual resides in the U.K., including that he provides a phone number with a UK area-code on his Facebook profile.

On February 3, 2018, Syria-based jihadi preacher sheikh 'Abdallah Al-Muhaisni celebrated the downing of a Russian fighter jet in the suburb of the city of Idlib, Syria, in a video posted on YouTube. Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) had claimed responsibility for downing the Russian SU-25 fighter jet earlier today.

On February 2, 2018, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian warplane over Idlib. On February 4, the organization's Ebaa news agency released what it claimed was a photo of the pilot's personal belongings.

On February 6, 2018, Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) released a statement denying any responsibility for taking part in handing over to his government the body of a Russian pilot whose fighter jet had been downed by the group last Saturday, and blaming an unnamed faction which had retrieved the body and refused its request to surrender it.

On February 3, 2018, the Telegram channel of the Al-Andalus Foundation for Media Production of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), published a death notice from AQIM following the killing of the organization's media director, Hisham Abu Rawaha Al-Constantini.

On February 1, 2018, the third issue of Al-Haqiqa, a pro-Al-Qaeda English language magazine, was published on a new official Al-Haqiqa Telegram channel. An article titled "TechTalk: Bitcoins (Im)possibilities" explains the basics of how to use Bitcoin, and explores whether cryptocurrencies can be used to fund jihad.

On February 1, 2018, the third issue of the pro-Al-Qaeda English-language magazine, Al-Haqiqa, [The Truth] was published on a new official Al-Haqiqa Telegram channel. The issue was distributed on numerous pro-Al-Qaeda channels on Telegram. The first issue of the magazine was released on February 27, 2017, and the second on June 21, 2017.

On February 1, 2018, the third issue of Al-Haqiqa, a pro-Al-Qaeda English language magazine, was published on a new official Al-Haqiqa Telegram channel. An article in it titled "Media Jihad: A Digital Struggle To Bring You the Truth" celebrates jihadis' battle for the hearts and minds of its online supporters.

On February 5, 2018, the pro-Al-Qaeda Telegram channel "Caravan of Martyrs," which is dedicated to publishing eulogies of fallen mujahideen, posted a brief eulogy of an Australian fighter, Abu Dharr Al-Australi ("The Australian"), who was killed approximately three years ago in Syria.

Ja'afar Al-Husseini, the military spokesman for Kata'ib Hezbollah Iraq, a militia supported by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and which is on the U.S. list of designated terrorist groups, issued threats about expelling the American forces stationed in Iraq during a television interview when he said, "The confrontation with the Americans is likely to occur at any moment…"

Voice of Islam, the media outlet of the Uyghur jihadi organization the Turkestani Islamic Party (TIP) that is active in Syria, published several photographs on February 2, 2018, depicting the memorial prayer service held during Friday prayers at one of the mosques in the village of Jisr ash-Shugur in Syria, in honor of Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Damela, aka Muhammad Saleh Hajim Al-Kashghari, "who was killed in the prisons of the Chinese oppressor" [see photographs below].

Voice of Islam, the media outlet of the Uyghur jihadi organization the Turkestani Islamic Party (TIP) that is active in Syria, published a poster on February 3, 2018, calling on Muslims to donate to the fight against the forces of the Syrian regime in the rural area around Idlib.

Kandahar province, shown in blue, is located along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Qari Muhammad Yosuf Ahmadi, one of the spokesmen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization), has accused the Afghan security forces and foreign troops of killing civilians in a joint operation in Kandahar province.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization in the country) has released a new video showing Taliban militants undergoing training at a camp somewhere in Afghanistan. The video shows the militants training under winter and summer conditions.

One of the websites of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization) is claiming that 105 fighters of the Daesh (Islamic State, or ISIS) and Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) have joined the Taliban in Narang district of Afghanistan's Kunar province.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization which is considered by Afghan affairs experts to be working on behalf of Pakistan) has issued a statement that underlines the need for peace talks – a Pakistani dual position to engage in talks while continuing to keep fighting, by means of the Taliban, to gain control over Afghanistan.